Re·per·cus·sion
by Raigon
Summary: Love and Hate. He never understood it, but responsibility ...well that was something that he did. And what was he responsible for? The bonds that his friends created and cherish, the people who lived in the village of Hidden leaf, and now ...the mis-deeds of the last person he would ever think to be responsible for. Sai's world turned upside down. Sai X Sakura
1. Chapter 1

[Okay, I am redoing this story. So, let me say this first, I don't own the characters are anything related to Naruto, and I will be up front that I don't even own the idea of this story. It actually comes from someone else, but since, it seems that it will never be finished so I decided to do my own spin on it.]

**Retribution**

**By: Raigon**

Rain, why did it have to rain?

Her footsteps splashes unnaturally loud as the moment of distraction pass. This isn't some outing the rain was disrupting, but the moment of truth, as a kunai buries itself through a tree to the right of her head. Her footsteps skidding, as she turns to face him…the mutated shinobi that had been chasing her, he would pull up short in the face of her rage, only to have her fist plow its way into his chest. Her monstrous strength would send him flying from that hit …as a tree would fall in the forest.

The lightning flashing as she breathes deeply.

It wasn't over yet, not by a long shot, for this was the moment that they had spent half their lives on. The one mission that they had gambled everything on, their hearts, their souls, and their lives, and finally it was about to come to its end.

Sakura wipes the wet hair out of her face …as she stares at her destination and charges forward into the darkness of pouring rain. Thunder would finally sound, but even it wasn't enough to cover up that blood cuddling roar as she put more speed into her dash. The trees whipping by her in a blur as she recognized that roar and pray that he wasn't too far gone, she had been separated from her team upon entering the forest. For once, their tip hadn't been some dead end path, some trail that had long gone cold, but it was the monsters lair …and it couldn't have come at a better time. They had almost given up hope, the fear had started to drive them mad, and even though this tip had come from the most untrustworthy of sources …it was like a starving dog being given a bone. They would have taken anything at that point, but to find it so accurate. It was a blessing, then, but now …maybe it was more of a curse as she flew with reckless speed.

..

Pain and hurt had always been one and the same to him.

The differences of emotions in one next to the other lost to him …as was so many other things as he watches as the change took place. His team mate was losing himself …as the rage and anger would take control. The same anger and rage, he had spent his entire life being told to guard against, and for once, he understood why …as the ninetail fox would start to overshadow the normally happy boy. One tail, two tails, three tails, four tails, and a final fifth one would appear …as he was quickly reaching the point of no return and without either of their sensei there was no way to stop him as their former team mate would step forward. The one he replaced.

The Traitor.

They all say he look like him.

Hair slick by the rain to lay flat like his own. Pale of skin, and moving with the grace of a serpent, and those dark eyes that stare back at him before that blaze of hatred would make them flash reddish to him. Arrogates radiated from him ...pouring over anyone near him, and that confidences in himself that spoke volumes of being the center of attention for most of his life.

They looked nothing alike.

He would never understand that estimate.

His hair though flatten in the rain would look similar but that was it. His skin was paler, by a shade or two. His eyes were dark, true black instead of that imitations that was the traitor's, and they would never flare red with any sort of emotion. Finally his movements, he didn't move like a snake, but more like the tiger or lion that he loves to create. As for arrogances, he had no emotions at all, and so his being was devoid of all of that.

But, that wasn't all, and it was the last that made clear his own separation.

For there was no way he would do what the traitor did ...for that one had turn his back on everyone, trample on their feelings as though it was nothing, and shattered bonds he was willing to die for. Only a fool would do that, and Sai was no fool ...even though that would have been arguable at the moment.

They had afterall walked into a trap.

Sai pushes away from the tree as his blood leaves a stain behind him from his leaning on it. If it was to be a trap, he wouldn't so easily allow them to fall to it, for no other reason, than the fact that he dislike losing to the traitor. The Traitor whom had so easily thrown away something that he so desperately wanted to attain, and whom with just a single gesture could have it again …if he so choose. He didn't deserved that sort of loyalty as the dark hair boy pulled the katana free of its' sheathe and without a single word the two blades would cross as the traitor made for a death blow against Naruto. A move that would have slice head from shoulders had he not intercepted it. Dark eyes met dark eyes then …as one would turn a reddish tint …as he tries to once more drive home his superiority as the five tail boy would roars loudly and Sai in a single motion managed to force him backwards and away from the boy. Pressing his advance for the surprise attack he would force of their blades upwards as he strove to disarm the other boy and maybe bring this fight to a more control pace for himself.

For the traitor with bad, but traitor with a blade was worst.

A twist and a quick upward motion would give him just that reward as the traitors blade spun in the air before landing point down in the mud. He had succeed, and in his triumph for but one moment ...he had pause, and that was all that was needed. Red would meet black then as a single misstep would give the traitor back control.

This should be over quickly.

Then red would meet red …as the shock of their meeting would break them apart.

Another roar would remind them both of their tasks and break the moment of hesitation as Sai would succumb to red eyes. In the darkness of that tiny pin point of black, he would find himself trap in an endless cycle of death, but it wouldn't paralyze his mind or heart like others. He had no fear of death and he felt no pain ….not at least in the way that it was meant to be felt. The illusion that would have stopped so many others, only forced him to pause as he tries to shift his mind pass those visions. As he tries to rejoin, in some sense, the real world …even as his inner self is being killed time and time again.

As the rain pours down, he can see the traitor's back ….he had thought his replacement was well dealt with …as the traitor made his move. A hand reaching out for the transformed boy, Naruto, his body overlapped with the chakra of the demon within, and still roaring in fury and pain. It was to be over soon, as suddenly the raging beast would go quiet, as something that the traitor did suddenly quell it. A wet splash …as the boy falls limply into the rain, Naruto was him again, and the beast contain as the traitor looks away from his conquest. His eyes going upwards to the top of a hill where his master stands in the rain smiling his approval, it was after all, the final test. The proof of eyes' maturity and ripeness …as the traitor turns to join him.

Even weaken, Sai managed to make his move as the master's face turns from happiness to shock. It was all the warning that the traitor would need …as he spun around and the sound of a blade sliding through flesh would slice through the air ….as Sai's eyes went wide for but a moment. His mind slipping back into that world of endless death …as his body seems to be following with its own real one. The scroll of containment he had tried to use …slip through his fingers to unravel wetly in the rain. It would now never serve its purpose …as a wet stain seems to be the only testament at first of where the blade had gone in that black uniform. Slowly, blood would find its way free of the fabric as it rain down the side of his stomach …dripping from there onto the wet grass. Water mixed with blood as the traitor's eyes were wide in surprise for but a moment himself …as he pulls the blade free as a voice calls out to him.

Sakura had appeared on the other side of the battlefield, and she wasn't alone as on the opposite side …their sensei would also appear. What he had done wouldn't be hidden now ….as Sasuke simply made a low noise of resentment and then turned to race after his master. Leaving everything now, in a state of ruin …as the girl races towards the dark hair youth as his body splashes limply into a puddle of rain. The water mixed with blood slowly turns a muddy red.

Rain, why did it have to rain?

[Prologue done~ confusing …if so please tell me]


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 1**

**Repercussions**

It was still raining as the hospital staff was for once on pins and needles. This place in Konoha held some of the highest of tension on the best of days, since, as a shinobi village a visit here also meant some life changing injury. A shift in the way that one would think and live, because for most of the shinobi of this village this was a last stop in their career. If a medic nin couldn't handle it in the field, then whatever the injuries are would mean that the shinobi was between the realm of life and death. There are few ninjas that can bridge that gap and come back the same, except for one team, that seemed to be almost immune to the hospital's charm. In fact, some members of that team frequent this place so much that not only was they known on a first name basis, but so were their mannerism as two shinobi guarded the door to one hospital room while another had the window. The tension created this time …was of a completely different sort. Recognition of an incoming storm that would threaten to blow everything away …though they would make sure, that it stay contained to that one room.

He wouldn't be getting out of there this time.

Naruto Uzumaki awoke to the bright lights of the hospital …as he sat up slowly trying to focus in on his surroundings. It would only take him as long as the time it took for his eyes to adjust from the darkness of unconsciousness to the light of the hospital's room to recognize where he was, as he sighs lightly. Even if he was deaf, or dumb, he knew where he was as he looks over to his left expecting to see one or more of his team mates with him. Normally, for whatever reason when he ends up in the hospital they always make it a point that he is never alone, which was a lot of trouble for his team mates if they weren't injured. Though if harm, they would roll that bed in beside his own, or if he was in a room with multiple beds then one of his his team mates [mostly Sai] or one of his sensei [mostly Kakashi] would fill the one closest to him. Thus waking up alone, he couldn't help noticing that it was vacant, and wonder what had happen this time for it to be so?

Did that mean he was the only injurer this time as he tries to remember the events that had gotten him here this time? And if so, why wasn't someone else here waiting in a chair for him to awaken. Something was very strange, and as he tries to piece things together ... his mind started to recall other things and this small mystery was lost in a memory that made him crush the sheets in his hands.

Sasuke!

They had ...found Sasuke. They had confront him ...and then...

Naruto bolts from his bed then.

His feet hitting the ground as he rushes for the door. Had they been successful this time? He knew if they had it would have nothing to do with him, he had lost it, he had let the fox demon consume him…even though he had pledge not to allow that. It was just that, those words, the sight of the Orochimaru in the distances laughing at him, and then Sasuke's own dismissal of what they had been trying to do for him. He hadn't been able to control his rage and anger, and been consumed by it …as his hands reach for the doorknob, but before he could reach it …the door opens quickly slamming into his face.

"Naruto!" "Naruto?" "What are you doing over there?" "You should be in bed resting."

The pink haired girl known as Sakura stood in the doorway. Her eyes stern, but, the heat that would normally be there …was missing …as Naruto smiles from the floor rubbing his now bloody nose. He wasn't going to argue with the girl, he had had enough bones broken as he gets up from the floor and with his back turn asks the question he already sort of knew the answer to from her stance.

"We didn't rescue him did we?"

Sakura was speechless.

There are times when after the fox demon has taken him that he has spots in his memory, holes in the current events, and he can't piece together even what they had been doing. This time wasn't one of them, as she felt the tears threaten to spill from her eyes. She had been trying to spare him that information as long as she could, but that wasn't the only thing she was hoping to spare him from …for just a moment longer as he understood the silences in her words.

"Damn it!"

His hand hit the tray that had been left beside his bed. The sound of it crumpling to the floor was loud in that soundless room.

"How long have I been out?"

The words full of hate and self loathing. Naruto knew without even looking that Sakura was near tears again, that she was hurt by his weakness, and though she wouldn't cry in front of him anymore ...she would still cry later. Even though he had promised that they would get him back, he had failed at the most critical of moments, and more than likely Sasuke was now beyond their reach. He had probably been consumed by Orochimaru by now, and there was nothing that he could do about it. Yet, still he had to hear it for himself, how far had he failed, by how much … had he miss out because of his own weakness.

"Two days."

The words stung deeper than he had thought it would. Sasuke had been dead for two whole days while he slept in that bed and the anger gripped his heart even more …as he grabbed the nearest thing …a chair and threw it across the room. The fact that he was bandaged from his hair all the way to his feet didn't even register in his mind as he fell to his knees.

"I am sorry ….." "I couldn't .."

Naruto starts to mutter as suddenly he would feel her press up against his back.

"It wasn't your fault." "I couldn't help him either, I was supposed to have gotten strong enough now to drag him back myself, and I failed." "I couldn't even …I couldn't even save Sai."

The words were out, and she knew it was done without tact as she tightens her grip around him. The world broke into pieces then around the boy, as his eyes went wide. Bits and pieces came back to him in a rushes, he had remembered that Sai had been with him, but that information hadn't been important then. Sai could take care of himself, he had always taken care of himself before, but as those words sunk in ….a shiver went through him.

"Sai is …"

She didn't let him finish those words as she press her head against his neck …as the wetness of tears would be his answer for now. The boy's eyes lost all of their warmth as they dulled to nothingness then. They had lost more than just their chance to rescue Sasuke in that rain …as those tears she wouldn't show him ...was felt against him. They would stay like that until Sakura finally release him. The shock and guilt in his eyes would be the first thing that Sakura saw as she realized once more ...she put another burden on him and like the last one ...she didn't know how to release him from it.

A knock at the door, would have her quickly wiping her eyes, as it would open widely to reveal Sakura's sensei.

It was Tsunade.

The older woman would take one look at Sakura's face and the dead expression in Naruto's eyes. Words weren't needed to confess what had happen in that room. She would take a deep breathe as she tries to settle herself. She had seen that look that the boy now wore on her own face ...he was learning the cruelty of this world, and what he would do with it ...she hoped for a different choice than her own. As she chose her next words carefully.

"I see you have already told him, Sakura, …come on ..both of you. It's probably best, if he sees for his own eyes and comes to grip with the reality of it. You can no longer save Sasuke."

She declares sharply.

Her heart as heavy as stone, she had hoped and prayed that the world would spare him from this pain. But, she knew, that it wasn't always possible. That the world didn't always rotate to the whims of prayer, and when it didn't …the person had to be strong enough to get pass it. Though it was heart wrenching to watch the boy slowly move forward …as if every step took something out of him and maybe it did. For he would no longer be the same innocent, naive boy he was before today. His movement lifeless and limp as he rose to follow, was sure sign, that he was quickly realizing the price that everyone was paying for his bond with the traitor. A price that was hidden from him before now...the death of shinobi that had followed after him, the spies that never returned, but, not anymore, Sasuke had done something that couldn't be hidden ...and something that could be place squarely on his shoulders ...the injury and death of his friend, Sai.

It was sad it had come to this, and Tsunade regretted the price, but maybe it was for the best.

The next time they met Sasuke ...he would be an enemy. It was best they got use to that idea now, before, another life was lost in their chase of him.

Though Naruto didn't see it that way. He didn't quite understand where they were going as they left that room, and Sakura realizing the difficulty in his movements tried to assist him ...it didn't matter anymore to him anyway, but to her ...she had to make some for of amends.

The realization sinking in with each step.

They could no longer save Sasuke.

Tsunade took him into the heart of the hospital. Into a room, that few shinobi every enter, most of the time ...they were dead long before they such a place could be used …and those few that do ...only half only exited. For this was a room contained on all sides by glass with the marks of a jutsu upon it. Inside of that glass room there was hundreds of hundreds of machines inside, with one small bed in the middle. This room was worth as much as half the village alone … and a luxury that was worth 5 times over that price for it's effectiveness. This was the heart of the medic nin's hospital, a place that can bring the near dead back to the living or so it's said's rumor, but in truth ...this place is the last hope of a shinobi hanging onto life by a string. Though that wasn't every time, but it was a chance that many a shinobi would fight and die for, and one of the treasures of the great konoha village. It was there that they found him, lying on a table, skin paler than he ever had seen it …was Sai. The boy wasn't dead, but, it wasn't a lie to say he wasn't living either, his entire life was wired to machines as his chest was forced to go up and down, and his heart beat. The jutsu outside were rumored to force a soul to stay bound to that broken body …as Tsunade turned her eyes away from him.

She had visited that broken boy enough over the last few days ...not to need a reminder of his state.

She hated having to have to tell Naruto about it, but it would be a good warm up for when she told the boy's guardian and mentor. Danzo was whom she would have to face next after this, but, even that would be breeze compared to what she still had left to do with Naruto.

"He is in a coma, and no one thinks he will recover. Sasuke did that to him."

She wouldn't look at Naruto as she said those words, and he would walk the last few feet that separated him from the glass as he would press his hands against it and peer through it. Tsunade would continue as though he hadn't move from hers and Sakura's side.

"His body and soul were both shattered at the same time. I doubt our efforts are doing more than stalling the inevitable, but we are trying our best. Sasuke impaled him as well as used the sharingan to trap him in a genjutsu. It was overkill in the least ...considering one or the other is generally enough to kill ...merciless at the most extreme. He had no intention of letting Sai live nor were these wounds inflicted as a last resort either."

"Do you understand, Sasuke was going for blood this time?"

Tsunade said the words slowly so that every bit could puncture his soul. She hated to be the one to do this, she had no wish to be responsible for causing such pain, but she knew that the next time they met. Sasuke wouldn't be Sasuke, and if he did this ….while himself, there was no telling what Orchimaru in his form would do if they hesitated. What would happen next now that the mad man had achieved his dream? It was a truth that she had to be shown one time before herself when Orchimaru had gone rogue, that there was some that couldn't be save. Though, when it finally became apparent that they could not bring him back, she never dreamt that she would ever have to do this herself to someone else.

"I am sorry."

Naruto's eyes went to the boy's form as the beeping of a machine seemed to slowly set a rhythm in that quiet room. This is what his failure had meant, as he felt the tears burn the back of his throat as they rose. He shouldn't be crying now, but, he ….he couldn't' hold it in anymore and there was nothing that he could smash here. Suddenly once more, arms would encircle him.

Why did everyone have to hold him like that? Why did they treat him like a child now, when times like these above any other he should be treated like the monster? This was his fault.

He cried into Tsunade's arms …as the door behind them would suddenly swish open. Her own eyes wet …as a shinobi, an Anbu that recognized he had come in at the wrong time …froze there. Sakura would step in his path between the two. She could see it on the messenger's face ...that something worst had happen, and as she stood between them ...she tried to give the two behind her time to straighten up. He didn't want to be the bringer of even worst news, but, this was urgent as she glares at him. Normally this would be discussed elsewhere, but there wasn't time.

"Ma'am, Hokage, we spotted him coming towards the village. That missing nin, Sasuke, ma'am is heading straight for the village's front doors."

The world seemed to freeze for them both, as a heat spread in Naruto's body once more.

[To be continued….]


End file.
